1892.] P. J. Briihl — Be Rananculacci* Indicts Bixpntaliones. 191 



The late king Thebaw's father was a great patron of the rosary, 

 and used to bestow it freely as a royal gift. 



5. Qroeco-Roman Influence on the Civilization of Ancient India. 

 Supplementary Note.— By V. A. Smith, Esq., M. R. A. S., Indian Civil 

 Service. 



The paper will be published in the Journal, Part I. 



G. Be liananculaceis Iudicis Bisjnitationes — Scripsit P. J. Bkuhl. 



(Abstract.) 



The pi^esent paper is the first of three which will deal chiefly Avith 

 those species of Rahunculaceae which grow within the limits of the 

 Indian Empire, and in those countries which can, or might be reached by 

 travellers making India their base. We shall, however, also refer 

 incidentally to species growing in more distant places, whenever the 

 subject matter renders it desirable for us to do so. In the preface we 

 have a few words to say about the material which has been the object 

 of our investigations and about a certain abbreviated notation, grown 

 out of one used by Professor Drude, which we have found convenient 

 to use. 



We have thought it expedient to devote a whole paper to Aqui- 

 legia, about which there appears to exist a good deal of confusion in 

 various herbaria ; thus in Boissier's Supplementum we find reference 

 made, under the name of Aquilegia pubiflora, to a form which is only 

 indirectly related to that Wallichian species. When endeavouring to 

 bring order and law into the chaos of Indian forms, we found ourselves 

 compelled to extend our studies over the whole genus. The American 

 specimens in the Calcutta Herbarium are, however, not numerous 

 enough, to write a detailed monograph of the whole of the species, 

 although their number is sufficiently large to investigate their true 

 relationships and come to certain definite conclusions with respect to the 

 degree of variability exhibited by the species which group themselves 

 round A. formosa. 



We have consequently concentrated our attention chiefly on the 

 group of species or varieties which arrange themselves round the typical 

 A. vulgaris as a centre and, as it appears, as a parent form. We may 

 also state that our investigation, which has, of course, been directed 

 more especially to the Indian Aquilegias, has led us to the same result 

 at which Hooker and Thomson arrived years ago when studying 

 European and Asiatic Aquilegias in connection with the publication of 

 the Flora Indica ; that is to say, all the so-called Himalayan and 



